I Did What I Said I'd Never Do
28 years ago--when Kev and I were 4 months married and 6 weeks pregnant with Jackson, we, along with Kevin's family, attempted to hike to Lake Solitude in Grand Teton National Park.
It's approximately 17-18 miles round trip.
The men made it.
The women did not-we turned around before reaching the lake.
Back then I was not a hiker, I didn't work out, and I avoided anything physical, other than walking to and from the USU campus.
I wrote about the hike in my journal,
"I hated it, and if I could do it over again I wouldn't!"
I did, however, love the rest of the trip.
And I was happy the men made it.
Look at all that snow in late July!
In February I started a certification program to be a creation coach.
It's a 9 month program with weekly lessons and a number of daily habit requirements.
Part of the certification includes one "big" physical activity.
It can be a 5 or 10K, a marathon, a Triathlon; stuff like that.
I was thinking about hiking the Grand Canyon in the Fall, but my time is limited, so I decided since we'd be in the area, I should finish the Lake Solitude hike.
So 28 years later, I did what I said I'd never do ;)
I asked Jax if he'd like to do it with me (since technically he didn't finish either ;)
A few days before the hike Gracie opted to join us.
She was our video gal.
We have more videos than photos, so when the Sluffin' it Outdoors guy finishes the episode I'll post it.
We started on the trail at 6:30am.
The weather was perfect and we were making pretty good time.
Jax hurt his knee playing basketball the week before, but with his brace he did pretty well.
We made it to Lake Solitude around 11am.
So beautiful!
The three of us commented on how smooth things went, it was almost too easy.
Have to give a shout out to Dr Hoys.
It came in handy for both Jackson and my knees!
Aubrey is a writer for Dr Hoys.
Check it out, it's good stuff!!
We ate lunch, took in the view and then headed back.
We spoke too soon about the easiness of the way.
Almost immediately the knee I injured on the mud hike in Hawaii two years ago, started acting up. I brought my knee brace, just in case, so I put it on.
It went bad to worse fast, and then the other knee started giving me trouble.
We were only about a mile into our return trip when I could hardly walk.
Jackson's knees started acting up too.
I'm not one for dramatics, but I seriously didn't know how I was going to keep hiking all those many miles with messed up knees.
Thank goodness this guy didn't charge us, there's no way I could have ran.
Did you know Moose need to consume 10,000 calories a day?
That's a whole lot of plants.
I love this son of mine so much!
He's the best.
When he doesn't have hurt knees, he whips through the forest like a gazelle.
Two miles into the return trip I couldn't walk.
The pain was so terrible.
We sat down and Gracie said a prayer asking for help.
Right after the prayer I figured out I could walk backwards, which was much less painful.
Gracie held my hands (bless her little heart) and we walked all the down hill areas just like this.
Kind of pathetic.
And a little funny.
On the uphill and flat areas I could power through the pain walking forward and with long strides.
But anything downhill required walking backwards.
By 3:40pm we'd made it back to the truck.
All three of us were walking like we were 90.
Gracie's hips gave out around mile 14.
It just so happens that my friend Karri works at the orthopaedic shop in town.
And it just so happened that we'd planned to stop and see her on our way home.
Karri was a life saver!
She hooked us up with ice packs and Advil for the 5 hour ride home.
I can't remember the last time I prayed so long and hard.
I was scarified (totally a word) I'd get stranded on that mountain.
I didn't even have cell service to call the rescue team to come in and get me.
I thought for sure my knees might be wrecked for life.
I iced, compressed and took Advil the first two days after the hike and by the weekend they were much better. Today, they're almost as good as new.
With the hike behind me, I just need to finish my last three months of classes and course work and I'll be a Certified Creation Coach.
I joined the program thinking it would be helpful with my Seminary teaching.
It's a Christ-centered course and the instructor, Brooke Snow, totally speaks my language.
But, it has started taking on a life of its own.
I hired a business coach in April and I'm working on a couple of courses I hope to have ready to market later this year.
My signature course teaches control enthusiasts how to let go of the need to control.
Turns out, I am a bit of a control enthusiast myself.
I learned this while sitting in an Addiction Recovery meeting 18 months ago. I went with Kevin to learn more about this resource for ward members he was counseling. Imagine my surprise when the instructor described me as he talked about people who come for help with the addiction to control.
I still remember getting in the car to leave and asking Kevin, "Did you hear what the instructor said about that control stuff?". He just smiled. He's good that way, he doesn't judge, and lets me do me.
Ever since then, I have tried to figure out how to control my control addiction.
Turns out, I can't control it, but I can let it go.
I have prayed my way through recovery and the Lord has helped me step by step, and now he wants me to help other control enthusiasts.
So that's what I'm going to do.
If you'd like to be on my wait list for more info when the course is available, click the link below.
